Your answer

Answers
(9)

Hi Emma,

I know looks at so important at your age so I'll help with some tips. You cannot loose fat from a specific area, it is lost from all over your body. So excercising a specific area where you want to burn fat doesn't make much difference but of course it will improve muscle fitness. The main area for you to start on is the food you eat. Simply put, small portions, eat chicken breast eggs, fish, eggs, salad, vegetables and fruit. No sauces or dressings unless you know what exactly is in them. Keep your carb intake very low, one portion a day is enough but you can avoid it alltogether. (Rice, pasta, Potato).

Running and cycling will be good excercise for you, cardio workouts such as Zumba, spinning etc are also good. Don't worry about strength exercises for your legs, you use them for the cardio so don't over tire the muscle on other things as it will inhibit your ability to keep up the cardio for long durations. Also you don't want to over bulk the thigh muscles and it will be counter-productive in your goal of attaining 'a thigh gap'.

Changing your body shape takes time, you should start to see noticable results after 6 weeks. Don't get despondant, just keep up the clean eating and exercise and you will get the result you want. If you feel feint or dizzy at any time, rest and eat. Remember if you excercise hard you need to take rest days. Look after yourself and stay healthy.

Oh, also going out and dancing with your friends is great exercise too!

Hi again Emma, I assume that your food is prepared for you by your parents, so please talk to them and ask them to help by not trying to feed you up. Parents have the very best intentions but they can be a bit misguided (Grandparents are even worse when it comes to food). Good luck.

Barbell Squats and lunges Emma, using a full range of motion. These are the best for building strong, hard, defined muscle in the legs and glutes. Fat will be lost by diet and exercise. Muscle will be built with squats and lunges

Squats! Lots and lots of squats! Oh, and Sprints, they will build up the thighs in no time at all. Once the muscle is there, if that's the order you want to do it, just work on running and diet afterwards. I, personally, would do it all together.

Emma, sorry but you've gotten some terrible advice mixed in with some good advice here.

I'm assuming you want slim and thin thighs, not STRONG, MUSCULAR thighs with bulging quads and hamstrings. This thick leg look is not conducive to the thigh gap most women long for.

Squats, lungets, BARBELL SQUATS?! Do any of these things and you will be guaranteed to increase the mass of your thighs, which is completely counterintuitive to leaning out your thighs for that feminine, svelte look. If you resistance train your legs in this manner, what do you expect the muscles to do but GROW?

Don't get me wrong, resistance training is important but you need to focus on burning fat, which you achieve with cardiovascular exercises. Exercises that get your heart rate elevated and keep it elevated for a long period of time because you are expending (burning) a lot of energy. I always recommend trying to do exercises that combine both upper and lower body - so while lifting 3lb dumbells working on the upper body, do front or side kicks, knee raises, leg circles, etc. You will burn a ton of calories this way and still be building muscle (which will boost your metabolism) without it being the wrong muscle - *your legs/thighs*

The nutrition part is again, partially good advice - most importantly you need to calculate how many calories you need to eat a day for weight loss. You do not have to avoid all sauces and dressings, just make sure you account for the calories that in them as dry salads can be quite bland (you want to still be able to enjoy your food for the rest of your life, don't you!)

Once you have gotten your calories worked out you should work on burning fat through uninterrupted cardio that lasts for at least an hour. Working out in this state especially before you eat your first meal or at least a few hours after eating is great, as you are more likely to have your glycogen stores depleted and your body will use fat for energy.

Lowering carbs (don't attempt NO CARBS - it's no way to live) is also a good idea, as well as intermittent fasting because both will help you keep on track with your daily calorie goals. Also, carbs have been known to increase appetite and cravings for more carby/sugary things and the last thing you want to be doing is fighting cravings!

While on that topic, stay far far away from sugar. Look at the sugar contents in the things that you eat and try to limit the amount of times you eat out at restaurants because it is hard to gauge the amount of calories you are consuming as chefs/cooks add many ingredients from unknown brands in their dishes and typically use a lot of salt and sugar.

The answers given are all well and good, but no one mentioned the fact that genetics plays a role as well. Not everyone is built the same, and not everyone can achieve a "thigh gap", no matter how clean their lifestyle. There are different body types, and not all include this elusive trait. I recommend you focus on eating clean, regular exercise, drinking lots of water and getting enough rest.

Hi Emma, I know this is what a lot of magazines promote as being perfect but believe me it isn't. I'm 19 now and have only just come to terms with the fact that what the magazines tell us is not what many people actually want (especially the boys, they like a woman that has more than bones for legs) and definitely isn't what people normally look like as all photos of these perfect women are photoshoped. Gok wan even did a TV show on it called Gok's teens and is available here http://www.channel4.com/programmes/goks-teens-the-naked-truth/4od. Anyway I just want to say exercise to feel good, stay healthy and be happy because that is the most important thing. Also please don't starve your self, at 15 you will still be developing so eat untill you are full just make it healthy and remember that sugar and fat are both needed in moderation to live for people of all ages.

i don't starve myself. i wish i had tad that disciplined to, i'm too weak willed. longest i went was only 40 hours-not even two days-so pathetic. But usually i eat a normal amount of 1700-2000, sometimes around 1500 which is want i try to do, and then when i'm lucky only 1200. it's not even that bad because i don't plan on doing it for long, only until i get skinny.